29/02/2012

Media Assignment: The Amazon Kindle

The Amazon Kindle, Fourth generation was unleashed on September 28th 2011. After the success of previous Amazon Kindle’s such as the Kindle Keyboard, released in 2010, the newest addition to the Kindle family fit perfectly into the media market.  

Amazon.com Inc is a multinational electronic commerce company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It allows users to buy and sell a variation of products including electronic items such as Ipods, Televisions and Gaming Consoles.
The Amazon Kindle as a whole, enables users to download books, newspapers, magazines, blogs and other digital media via both Wifi and now 3G connection. In conjunction with this statement, the Kindle in many ways, has infinite uses which relate to products being sold on the Amazon website. It incorporates books, electronic devices such as Ipods and also Laptops, as the Kindle allows audiences to browse the Internet and the Amazon website to search for books. In terms of market, the Kindle enables users to take a step forward in terms of new media, changing the way we as a society read books. Users can download books on the go with either Wifi or 3G connection, allowing them to retrieve a book in just 60 seconds.


Amazon advertised the Fourth generation Kindle as being lighter, more compact than ever; which is undoubtedly something that particularly attracts it’s target audience. The slim and sleek design of the Fourth generation Kindle weighs just 170 grams, which is lighter than a paperback and fits into your pocket. Such specifications portray the way in which new media corporations must always be one step ahead of each other, wanting their new product to be far more advanced and accessible than others. This can be related to Cultural Obsolescence, the idea of accelerated culture and the way we as a society are trying to keep up with it. 

Politically, many see the Kindle as an advanced way of helping society become more educated. A study was completed by
Thorndike Press™ that suggests when enhanced fonts are used for children their comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary development are far higher. The Fourth generation Kindle allows for comfortable reading as users can adjust between eight different text sizes and three font styles. Not only this, but some may say that by creating a way of reading that includes technology, it entices audiences due to it’s accessibility. The Amazon website allures students, teachers and schools by having low price content on books such as Pride and Prejudice and out-of-copyright classics for free. In addition, the Kindle allows us to create references, digital notes and highlight parts of the text, allowing for a far more educational way of reading for both younger and older audiences. The fact that the Kindle is simply a gadget can attract younger users, allowing them to take part in Consumerism, relating to societies need to buy new things.

Many people read books as a way of escaping from every day life, allowing them to be someone else for a specific amount of time. The Kindle does a similar thing for audiences, yet allows for a far more technological experience, including specifications as the Kindle’s One Month battery life and the way you can keep a library of up to 1,400 books wherever you go. Relating to the Uses and Gratifications theory, the Kindle allows for escapism, so audiences can escape from their normal life wherever they are, being able to download a different genre of book within 60 seconds.

Competition of new media is fierce and there is a constant flow of new media products being released each year. Due to Marxism, and corporations having a profit motive, large companies are always trying to create a bigger and better product than others. Ibooks, is an e-book application by Apple Inc and was announced in conjunction with the Iphone and Ipod Touch in 2010. Ultimately, the first Kindle was released in 2007, which can easily be related to the way such corporations compete to have the most successful product on the market. In addition, this competition makes companies such as Amazon release upgraded Kindles, in order for them to stay on top.

 Last month, Amazon announced that in the US they sold more e-books in the last 3 months of 2010 than they did paperbacks. These statistics can portray how new media products are slowly but surely taking over some forms of old media and it seems this is only the beginning of the new media wave. 

22/02/2012

Marie Colvin

Marie Colvin who was one of the Veteran British war correspondents was announced dead today. Colvin was killed Wednesday in a shelling attack in Syria. She worked for The Sunday Times and was killed alongside another journalist, French photojournalist Remi Ochlik on Wednesday. The house they both were staying at was shelled and they were struck by fire as they were trying to escape. Colvin was known for loosing an eye to shrapnel when covering a conflict in Sri Lanka in 2001, this happened just two weeks after Colvin, 44, was named the best foreign correspondent in the British Press Awards. 
Colvin attended Yale University and covered many conflicts in foreign countries, allowing her to be awarded the 2000 Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation. 


I think it can be said all in all, Marie Colvin was an outstanding women who us journalists should take our hats off to, she lost her life for her career and can now be seen as a very successful journalist. 


21/02/2012

Karl Marx, Hegel and Communism

Karl Marx (1818)
- Karl Marx was born in Germany and had parents who were Jewish. Marx himself converted to Lutherism.
- He studied Law, then studied Philosophy and then Revolution. 
- Marx meets Fredrich Engles in 1844 in Paris; whom becomes of great help to Marx's himself.
- The Communist Manifesto was a manuscript written by Marx, and even to this day is one of the most influential political manuscripts in the world. This was written in 1848 and Marx had a lot of help from Fredrich Engles. 
- Marx was a Journalist and editor for a radical newspaper in Europe. He fled to London where he lived until his death in 1883. England was Marx's sanctuary and he felt at peace here, which is the reason he stayed here until his dying day.
- He was anti-capitalist and believed in making a difference. This quote on his gravestone portrays this; “Workers of all the land unite… The philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point however is to change it."
- Another famous quote said by Marx is; "The philosophers up to this point have only interpreted the world - the point however is to change it."
- Marx believed that you could explain everything about a society by analysing the way economic forces in shape social, religious, legal, political processes. 
- In his time, Marx achieved a fusion of;
1. Hegelian Philosophy (philosophy of history and dialects)
2. British Empiricism (especially economics of Smith)
3. French Revolutionary Politics, especially Socialist Politics (man is born free but everywhere in chains)






Around the time of Marx is the Darwin era. Marx tried to use the science of Darwin in his methods. By researching every method and aspect of society in order to understand things. 


Marx: 'man is the productive animal'
Aristotle: 'rational man'
Plato: 'political man'
Kant: 'moral animal'


Teleological: This is the meaning that history is going somewhere.


Hegel
- Hegel believed that history had a purpose
- Not only this, but he also believed that spirit is the guide
- History will finish when spirit will achieve full-self knowledge


Thesis = A proposition
Anthesis = A counter proposition - contradiction
Synthesis = Combination of refuting of 1 proposition


Marx deeply disagreed with much of what Hegel said but he agreed with Hegel's system. Hegel talks about the battle between good and evil and Marx thought it is more about the battle between Rich and Poor and the battle of classes in general. Dialect is the meaning of when ideas clash which is what Hegel spoke of. Marx was constantly trying to show this stuff in the real world, making it real in general. Marx said the working class were the people without any property, which in some cases can be true. 
"You have nothing to lose but your chains." This was said by Marx and can be related to the way he wanted people to fight. (This quote can also relate to Rousseau.) Marx wanted the lower classes to fight for more as they in many ways were separate from everyone else. 
Alienation was what Marx said stopped the lower classes from fighting. He speaks of the way Capitalism alienates men from themselves and each other. Ultimately, it stops you from being yourself and we see others as commodities. 
The process of work was separating people from their real selves and this is the problem that Marx saw. He believed that working in factories, destroyed people mentally and that the culprit of all of this was the bourgeoise (the owners of the factories and production.) However unhappy these lower classes were, the carried on due to alienation, they just had no need to fight. 


Communism
- Thesis: The bourgeoisie (free market capitalism, liberal state and individual rights)
- The hegalian dialect - Marx sees this as a product of history
- Inside capatalism is an inside virus. It will destruct. Ultimately, it can never survive and will destroy itself in time. Marx describes how it creates its own grave diggers.
- Synthesis = Socialism
Capitalism will try to survive by investing in better technology and exporting these products. Capitalism is all about profit and the interest is this. 
The commodity (the things we want) will always be too expensive than what we can afford.
Capatalism can be flexible yet Marx did not understand/see this.
1st there will be a revolution (fighting on the streets and complete violence) - Marx thinks conflict is the way we will progress
2nd we will have socialism - after which, this state we have created will wither away, meaning we do not have a government and it will be a free state.


Communism -as said by Chris- will be like John Lennon's 'imagine' and everything will be perfect, no countries, no possessions, no struggle. This is similar to the State of Nature, and can be seen as hegalian. 
Marx theory of False consciousness is one that I have studied in College in Media Studies, it relates to the way we as a society always want more than we can have, and are never satisfied by what we have. 


Content of Marx's Work
- The revolutions 1848 - Spring of Nations
- The idea of nationalism
- Europe, wide explosions of revolutions - France, Italy, Germany
- Anyone of any intellectual ability was German e.g. Freud, Marx, Heidegger, Jung, Einstein.
- There wasn't really a Germany at the time, it was just a killing ground with no Cohesion. 
- The idea of Romanticism 
- 1848 - revolutions were everywhere
- Germany became the idea of the perfect nation
The growth of Prussia is something Hegel thought was perfect. 

Radio Assignment: News Story - Fire in Ringwood



Fire fighters were rushed to a home in Hampshire after a large fire had started.
The fire had begun in the roof-space of a home at 7:30 on Sunday evening and had spread to neighbouring properties.
All occupants of the homes in New Street, Ringwood were left unharmed.

Radio Assignment - Uno


This is my first real radio assignment where we had to write a news story, record it in a radio booth, then go out and ask the public a question to either add vox pops or a whole interview to our story. For this week, I decided to use vox pops as I felt it would allow me to get my confidence up in asking people to answer some questions for me; which definitely happened. After people being continuously rude and getting knocked down me and Emma finally gained our confidence deciding we had nothing to loose and went out asking whoever we wanted. Ultimately, it definitely worked and we got everything done about a million times quicker. So this is my final piece, as most people I hate the sound of my own voice therefore think it's awful but oh well. Hope you enjoy!


News Story
Community centres across Hampshire have been given a funding boost from the County Council.
Grants have been given to a variation of centres in the Winchester district and Hampshire, totalling more than £39,000. Winnall Community Association in Winchester has been given £12,500 to allow for better facilities to help the local community.
This money will go towards improvements of these community centres, ensuring the best possible facilities are available. We asked the people of Winchester how valuable they feel local community centres are, and whether they feel that more funding would be beneficial. 

13/02/2012

Newspaper Histories

Today's media lecture was far more interesting than that of many other weeks. I suppose the reason is because I felt that I should really pay much more attention as it related a lot more to my Journalism Course. We focussed on newspaper histories and the way they have progressed throughout the years, including the way certain things have affected the way we consume the media. 
All in all, we need to consider the perspectives of 4 main things;
1. Technological Determinism - the way technology is driving things
2. Whig/Liberal Accounts - a greater sense of freedom
3. Market Models - things change as the market drives it
4. Social Conflict - clashes between different social groups


15th Century - 1836


State controls:
-Large amount of social control - Henry V11 edict: 'to curb lewd and naughty matters' in 15th Century.


State controlled printers by:
-Laws: issues such as Libel and sedation
-Fiscal restrictions taxes on a retail price. --> Advertising tax
-Bribes: Prime minister Walpole spent £50,000 on bribing Journalists in the 18th Century
-Government paid £600 to The Morning Herold
-Issues licences to print

Newspapers emerge as:
-Technological infastructure developments in things such as roads, transport links between towns, and the weekly post between main towns in 1637. 

New ideas come to the fore:
- Religious and Political ideas are communicated in print and there is a desire for these.
- Emergence of the country as an 'idea' that people share.
- Gradual decline in old systems of power
- Matched and facilitated by a steady increase in literacy in 1700. Approximately 60% male literacy and 40% female literacy.

News Markets to 1836
- Stamped papers catered for newly emerging professional and middle class readers
- The duty paid on these gradually increased from 1/4 D in 1712 to 3 1/4 by 1997.
- The Observer, The Times, Daily Telegraph plus others. Consequently they were restricted from ability due to such issues as The Peterloo Massacre.
- A number of radical unstamped papers catered for industrial working class - The Cap of Liberty and The Black Dwarf. The claim to be periodicals and therefore accused from tax.




The radical press up to 1836
-Law production costs - avoid stamp duty 
- Law distribution costs - networks of illegal street sellers - 800 arrests between 1830 and 1836.
- Close connection between newspaper and particular communities 
- In 1850 the stamp duty was abolished
- During this time, the training for Journalists was increased and it was seen as a real profession rather than something people did on the side.
- Industrial and commercial growth begins to generate huge mass markets


It can be said that there are many consequences for these changes.
1. Mainstream papers attract advertising revenues
2. To challenge this the radical papers have to dilute politics to attract advertising revenue to go further up market


Lessons of this
- The decline of radical papers can be understood in different ways depending on the perspective we adopt.
- The Market Theory - deregulation leads to more efficient papers
- Whig/Liberal view - the press escape from the state and therefore can be seen as 'free'
- Technological Determinism - there is an improved production
- Social Conflict - advertising is a new patron and editorial power shifts towards being capital. 


Proprietorial Power
- 1st age of press barons 
- Structures of control allocated power to proprietors e.g. Murdochs values shown in The Sun.
- 1945 onwards, newspaper circulation declines due to broadcasting etc.
- In 1987 Wapping comes to place - this relates to the structure of the newspaper industry changing
- Open conflict


As a final question:
Does online news mean better or worse working conditions for Journalists?
It can be said that new media is making many Journalists loose jobs, and therefore having a negative effect on their place as a Journalist. Personally, I believe although this is true, new ways of media such as Blogging, Twitter and Online Websites allow new prospects for Journalists, leaving more jobs open for them as a whole. What do you think?

08/02/2012

Kant, Hegel and Schnopenhauer, errrrr!?

So, a pre-warning as this blog may be completely confusing as I missed this particular lecture, due to being ill as normal. Ultimately, it seems not many others understood the lecture anyway so it seems I am going to know even less than them.


Kant
- His book named "A Critique of Pure Reason' which was published in 1781, sought to prove that all knowledge comes from experience. He states that if you put your hand in fire and it burns you, it can be proven that fire burns. 
- Kant says that our knowledge is based on both logic and ideas that aren't found in logic.
- Analytic = things that are based on the idea of contradiction e.g. 'a tall man is a man' is true as 'a tall man isn't a man' would be contradictory.
- Synthetic = anything we know by experience e.g. 'yesterday was cold', ultimately there is no evidence to prove whether this is correct or not apart from our own personal experiences.
- Kant refused to accept the fact that all synthetic propositions are found through experience. He therefore concluded the following terms and their meanings;
Empirical Proposition = knowledge that is found by our senses 
A Priori Proposition = something that has grounding in something other than just experience, but we learn about due to experience.


Hegel
- Hegel was inspired by Kant and the work that he produced
- Karl Marx was a disciple of his
- Hegel believed that the world was similar to a large organism and that we are not viewing the world in its truest sense
- A Thesis = an idea
- An Antithesis = the opposite idea
'Real is rational and rational is real'
'The whole = the absolute'
- The absolute is 'pure being' as it does not have any properties other than simply existing to contain all that is within. 
- The dialetic triad is used by Hegel to discover the true nature of reality itself.
- Hegel believed the world was constantly changing even though we can not see it.
- He states that change is the only constant thing, yet despite this change, everything retains it's being.
I.e, if you were building a house, but go round slowly replacing everything such as the tiles and bricks, the house would still be there yet it would be completely different.


Schnopenhauer
Yes, I agree I can't even pronounce his name either so I wouldn't even bother trying. Unless you think your something else, but you've probably just used the online pronunciation website anyway!
- So, Schnopenhauer is a pessimist whereas most of the other philosophers I mention are optimists.
- He dislikes Christianity, preferring such religions as Buddhism and Hinduism. 
- Schnopenhauer believes that the world is a will and idea. He said it was dictated by the Holy Ghost. 
- He, unlike Hegel, retained the thing itself but identified it with will.
(I don't have many notes on Schnopenhauer in general as he wasn't really covered in either my lecture nor seminar, and I have to admit, his section in Russell doesn't make much sense either so I apologise for this!)

07/02/2012

New Media and the Wave of New Technologies

There are lots of new media around us, many of society (most people my age) use technology more than they even realise. Currently, I am writing this blog on an apple mac, which is a thing of new technology. A minute ago I was looking at Twitter on my Iphone, both being examples of new technology. This morning I checked my train times using an App on my Iphone, another new technology. It can be said that in this generation, we have been brought up amongst this technology and haven't really known any different. We have been of the age when we can get bought these Ipads, Iphones, Ipods, Laptops, TV's, Kindle's as presents for Birthday's and Christmas, whilst our grandparents look confused as to what we are doing on this touch screen device. Ultimately, it can be said that everything is new for a while, and we have been using this term 'new media' for at least 60 years, which seems quite remarkable when you think of it, as I class new media as the past 10 or so years. 


The idea's of the Athenian Democracy 
- New Media will solve problems
- New Media will lend to us having a new golden age of democracy


Genuine Fears of Society (which can be called; Moral Panics)
- Victorians were very concerned about such happenings
- Carolyn Marvins book 'When old technologies were new' details many instances of this
- She describes not just the fears of the new, but also the waves of moral fear concerning new types of crime upon the established order.
-Threats to the moral order of society, new media will affect the existing way of living. 
Ultimately this can portray the way people were scared about telephones as really, anyone can hear your conversation. Much like our parents and grandparents are scared now about us having specific details and images online, on sites such as Facebook, which anyone can go on and see.


History of the Internet
- The history of the internet is deeply tied to the history of computing
- We could look at different histories, the people and the technologies and come to a conclusion about where the internet began as a whole.


War + Hippies + Capitalism = Internet


It can be stated that war is good for nothing, however this is not always the case. In the case of the internet, war is good for triggering technological development, as many armies needed the newest technology in order to beat other countries, therefore these technological developments happened quite rapidly during times of the war. 
The Mathematics of war underpin much contemporary computing e.g. 
- Demands of the artillery shell trigonometry 
- Distributed non-hierarchical communication
Hippies and counter culture happened in the 1970's. After the 60's, there was a strong anti-establishment ethos and a drive to challenge the existing order. There were lots of universities (both in the US and europe) were very conservative in nature but students were not. Many students challenged this by dropping out of university and felt that this was ok. Ultimately, many media names dropped out of university include the founder of Facebook, Steve Jobs, as well as Bill Gates. The quotes used during this time were such as;
'find your own way'
'down with the man'
As it is known to many who know this period of time, there were many protests against all people within the establishment, including police, teachers, shop workers and everyone who had such jobs that had a say in what you did and how things were run.


US Capitalism, 1980's and Money
- US Capitalism was very friendly to technological innovation
- Venture Capitalists are people who we know in such programmes as Dragons Den. They make high profit investments in new media, which is ultimately, risky but a highly profitable venture. 
- There was a constant search for new possibilities and people always wanted more!


Waves of Money
This happens in waves: 


  • - New technologies emerge
  • - Lots of start-up companies
  • - New money joins in
  • - A bubble builds
  • - Then the bubble bursts
- During the mid 80's there were early computers and video games, much like the games you see in arcades now. Personally, it reminds me of the film Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, were they get stuck in a hotel in Vegas where a man believes it is still the 80's and he is playing video games in the arcade, being stuck in there since the 80's.
During the 90's, the internet begun, having Microsoft as the biggest provider.
During the 21st Century, social media has begun with such online sites as Twitter and Facebook being most teenagers lives. 
The Facebook worth has now got up to $100 billion which in figures can be seen as; $100,000000000
We are now currently in a wave of money but it is affected by the economic downturn. 
By putting all of these things together, especially in places such as California and Seattle, it created a wonderful culture of happy people.

Kittler's theory of technological development
- He argues that all media technology is actually a "misuse of military equipment".
- He describes war as a 'problem of information processing' and information technology is developed to solve this, it is later used for entertainment.

Trends
The internet can be said to be a result of 3 combining factors;
The factors today consist of
1. Average population - in the west it is ageing, but outside the trend is much slower. On average it is 7 years less.
2. Poverty and austerity for all - many countries are going through economic hardship.
3. War is not what it used to be - maybe big wars are a thing of the past. There is often an information conflict, not just propaganda but attacking financial systems.  
Predictions
1. Sandpit Networks - The web is currently 'open' but we need security to use the net for bussiness. However the web doesn't do security so this creates a problem. By having sandpit networks, it takes us a step back from problems people have relating to moral panics on sites such as facebook, when people believe their child is at risk from bad things happening. Therefore by creating sandpit networks, it allows people to not be as connected as they once were.
2. Mature Content - currently most online people are young, but eventually these people (including me) will get old. Content will therefore mature as at the moment it is very youth driven, but as these people get older, the digital natives will mature. 
3. Intellectual Property - practices such as IP addresses are already in trouble as more and more people are finding ways of hacking it. This can be related to the 'annonymous' group which have managed to hack hundreds of things. Millions of people violate such things each day, even I when I get codes to download youtube videos etc.



Radio

Pre-Warning; this blog may not seem as personal as it should, due to the fact that bits and bobs have been used from other students notes as I was not here on the day.
So, thanks to my month-long illness, it finally hit me bad therefore enabling me to come to uni all of last week. Which really was quite frustrating as normally I'm quite good at making the effort even when I'm not feeling like it. However, after being put on antibiotics for the third time in the past month and a half, I think my body kind of gave up, meaning I couldn't do much but lie in bed and complain. This is also the reason my blog is being updating loads this week, as I have a lot of catching up to do. 
Here are some of the following notes i retrieved from last weeks Radio lesson, which informed us on the way Radio can be portrayed and also what a successful radio broadcast should be like.


Radio is immediate, intimate and personal. 
It can be said that there are many ways in which the news is related to the media, and one of the main ways is that radio news is not as in-depth as newspapers. Ultimately this is due to timing and space, and on the radio people loose interest far quicker. Other ways radio news is related to the media is as followed;


1. Headlines 
2. Bulletins - These bulletins are usually 2-5 minutes long and often vary depending on the specific target audience. They are normally read by a Journalist or a news-reader and usually include audio cuts of interviews. Often these are used to make the story far more interesting, and the use of vox pops allow this done be done quickly.
3. News Programmes - These are when stories are put into detail and are often the most important stories of the day/week -normally hard news such as murders etc.- These particular stories often start with a headline then go in-depth into each top story; baring in mind, when we say in-depth, it is only in-depth within radio news terms. Normally radio in-depth is minimal in comparison to television news.
Most of these stories include live interviews or ones which are pre-recorded. 
4. Magazine Programmes - These programmes are less likely to include headlines and bulletins, but comment on topical and timeless issues. Stories like this often include phone ins, as it allows the audience to feel included in a particular issue which is being spoken about.
5. Packages - The cue is read by a presenter and is started by using an introduction and ended in a conclusion. The presenter then links to the reporter on a specific location/studio. These often remind me of stories on television where the presenter reports to a reporter stood in a field talking about sheep and crops; much like Bridget Jones. These types of stories often include more than 1 interview and also use vox pops and music to ultimately, make a whole package. 

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